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Last night Val Pollard, a 50-something married woman, had a visit from a 50-something British gentleman she had an affair with during a split from her husband, while she was living (without husband) in Portugal.

After much hemming and hawing, the man, Ian, revealed that he had tested hiv positive and had become infected after an earlier affair with a 30-something woman who contacted him after her own positive test result.

Val initially takes the other woman's age as good news, declaring that only younger "lasses" are vulnerable to hiv, not "women" such as herself. Ian informs her she needs to test regardless of what she believes about hiv. (At which point the programme ended.)

So far, so good. I thought the disclosure portrayal was fairly true-to-life. How the story-line progresses from here is yet to be seen.

While I would never wish hiv on anyone in real life, I do hope they have Val test positive. According to the dialogue, he would have been fairly newly infected when he and Val were together, which means he probably would have had a high viral load. Also according to the dialogue, they were "at it" all the time.

Aside from this allowing the story-line to stay true to life, a positive diagnosis for Val would also drive home the message that anyone can end up with hiv - regardless of age or sexuality.

Hiv infection rates in the over 50s are on the rise in the UK and it would be good if Emmerdale does the brave thing and highlights this fact - provided of course they have done their research and won't be perpetuating any transmission or treatment myths.

New diagnoses among older adults more than doubled between 2002 and 2011, rising from 442 in 2002 to 990 in 2012. One in four adults living with diagnosed HIV were aged 50 years and over compared to only one in eight in 2003.

Does anyone else here watch Emmerdale? Theyer? Britchick? What do you think?

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

I have noticed a lot of older women and heterosexual people in the clinic I attend and sometimes volunteer at . When I was a clinic host I spoke to a woman who was in her 60's who was very overwhelmed at being at a HIV clinic and dealing with her diagnosis . She told me she never even considered that something like HIV could happen to her .

Her only experience up until that time was a friend whose gay son died of Aids . I can relate to her and her feeling up to that time of HIV is something that happens to other people, its not so much that you feel it only happens to others as it is it a certainly wont happen to me mentality . When I was coming out HIV was something distant that was happening in New York or aan Francisco and because I was young and feeling immortal I didn't give HIV much thought until it was too late and I was infected .

Short interview with Emmerdale's producer Kate Oates over Val's HIV storyline and wanting to change perceptions

Do you have a link?

I haven't seen tonight's or last night's instalments yet, but so far they've put Val on the back-burner with everything that's going on with Sam and Rachel. So far it's been a pretty fair portrayal of how someone like Val might react, IMO.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

I haven't seen tonight's or last night's instalments yet, but so far they've put Val on the back-burner with everything that's going on with Sam and Rachel. So far it's been a pretty fair portrayal of how someone like Val might react, IMO.

"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love." - Butch Hancock, Musician, The Flatlanders

It does sound like they're intent on tackling stigma - but for me the true test of how serious they are will be whether or not they have Val test positive. One of the soaps - I forget now if it was Emmerdale or Corry - had a character go through a testing scare one time, but they tested negative so they never really had to explore the topic in much depth.

I'm hoping Val does test positive. While I would never wish that on someone in real life, I think the only way to really open up a dialogue about hiv in the 21st century is to have a living, breathing (albeit fictional) character where we can see all aspects of living with hiv.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

I haven't seen tonight's or last night's instalments yet, but so far they've put Val on the back-burner with everything that's going on with Sam and Rachel. So far it's been a pretty fair portrayal of how someone like Val might react, IMO.

Hollyoaks did a good HIV storyline sometime back with Mal the Irish guy. He found out and didn't know how to tell his girlfriend - ended up having unprotected sex with her because he was too scared to tell her.

Then (as is ridiculous soapland) she had sex with Mal's transvestite brother so when the shit hit the fan they both had to be tested. Mercedes was shouting down the street, 'he give me the AIDS' but ended up testing negative.

I thought they did it really well. Mal and Mercedes ended up getting married and everyone knew about his status but it was never really an issue (as it shouldn't be!)

I remember the East Enders storyline, and now Emmerdale. Since I ended up here in Australia, I don't get to see those shows anymore. Be interesting to see what happens, please keep us posted..........

I've been meaning to post an updated, so thanks for the nudge.

There hasn't really been much movement on this storyline so far. I'm hoping they're using a slow-burn because it's going to turn out to be a serious and on-going storyline (she tests poz). If they continue dragging this out only to have her test negative, I won't be a happy bunny, no I won't!

So since I first posted about this, they've shown her isolating herself both physically and emotionally, which has caused major problems in her marriage. They're currently separated.

Her husband came down with the flu (before the separation) and she panicked, thinking he was sick with something serious and hiv-related. This wasn't enough to prompt her to tell him though. And she still hasn't been tested; she chickened out when she went to a clinic the other week.

So far she's only told one person, a young woman named Victoria, her niece. Her niece is trying to be supportive, but Val is pushing her away. Victoria told her that it was no longer a death-sentence and even got some info pamphlets for her, which Val promptly burned for fear of someone finding them.

In one scene, Victoria gave Val a great big bear hug which freaked Val out ("don't touch me!!!) - she obviously doesn't know what is a transmission risk and what isn't, although Victoria is being portrayed as knowledgeable in this regard.

Victoria is doing her best to encourage Val to test and also to tell Eric (the husband), but Val isn't having any of it. She's terrified of rejection and judgement and everyone finding out. I wish they'd have Victoria explain to her that ignorance is not bliss and untreated hiv is deadly. Maybe this week? I do wish they'd get on with it already.

As I said, they've put this issue on the back-burner for the most part, with only snippets of scenes and not during every episode.

Oh, the reason she and Eric have separated is because he thinks she's having an affair. He saw her getting out of Ian's car (the poz guy) after she got in touch with him during her panic about Eric having the flu. The Ian is pretty pissed off with her that she still hasn't tested, and that she initially lied about having tested negative.

IMO, they're still portraying the situation in a fairly true-to-life way. I can totally imagine a middle-aged woman like Val reacting exactly as written, with the same shame and fear. I'll tell you what though, if I were privy to such a carry-on in real life, I would have slapped some sense into her and frog-marched her to the local GUM by now. (metaphorically slapped and marched her....)

I'll post more updates as the story progresses.

Regarding BeastBenders and the Mark Fowler storyline, I've never really watched that soap although I'm aware of the storyline. The whole show is too much doom-and-gloom for my liking, I like my soaps with a bit of humour mixed in for light relief.

I also don't watch Hollyoaks. Following two soaps (Emmerdale and Corrie) Following three soaps (Emmerdale, Corrie and the AM Forums) takes up enough of my time!

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Well it sounds exciting in Emmerdale. Agreed, East Enders is like listening to Leonard Cohen. No happy little Bunnies in Albert Square! It's a bit like Emmerdale here actually, tho all the grass is dead, and of course the spiders, snakes etc and other creatures capable of injecting venom.. There's a mob of Roos here at the moment, and a few Emus, assorted Parrots, Cockatoos and Galahs. It's also 40C+ day times here at the moment, so a tad bit dryer than those green rolling hills. Still it is the countryside.

Still all quiet on the hiv front and the program synopsis in my telly guide gives no indication of further news coming out this week. It's getting annoying - I feel like some of our WWs over in the Am I? forum who want their test results yesterday!

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts